Middleditch and schwartz1/9/2023 ![]() MIDDLEDITCH: You could use famous quotes from history if you wanted, but I’d prefer you to use your own. SCHWARTZ: There’s no way for me to use someone else’s words. ![]() MIDDLEDITCH: Why am I so much better than all the other people that you’ve been on the stage with? In your own words. SCHWARTZ: Your question is asking me why you’re great? Why is performing with me the best in the world for you? MIDDLEDITCH: You’ve been in a lot of improv troupes, and you’ve done a lot of improv. I thought it was going to be a little joy, but in the end it was something that really affected my life because it’s the thing that I love, so I can look at those guys and realize that I have friends, too. I have Wilford Brimley, Walter Cronkite, Ron Howard, Clinton Howard, Rob Reiner, Carl Reiner, Jaleel White. One day I got this peanut shell that looked like Walter Cronkite and I was like, “This is pretty cool.” So I’ve kept collecting peanut shells that look like celebrities. I’m proud of myself for knowing this thing and it’s really become a much larger part of my life than just something casual, as I thought it might be. And I finally had the time and the means to get my pilot’s license, and I didn’t expect to like it so much, especially since the nausea was so intense. And then flight simulators and all that kind of stuff. MIDDLEDITCH: Flying’s one of those things that I initially got into through having a few flights, and then being enamored with spitfires over the cliffs of Dover defending England from the Germans. MIDDLEDITCH: Well, I like to think flying is like improv, Ben. I’ve been friends with you since the whole process of you becoming a pilot started, and it’s been very exciting. I tried to buy one because Animal Crossing seems like it’s such a fun thing and they’re all sold out everywhere, so Nintendo, hats off, you’ve really moved some units. And then one of my friends from elementary school said, “I have a friend that could beat Diesel.” And I go, “No you don’t.” And he goes, “Yes I do, invite him tomorrow.” It’s going to be a mess. SCHWARTZ: We’re bringing that energy home tomorrow because one of the guys that plays in our group, this guy who goes by the name of Diesel on his Nintendo Switch who’s a friend of mine, he’s by far the best out of all of us. First we played NHL and then we played FIFA, and there was a whole trophy and everything. ![]() I used to host a league here in Los Angeles called the League of Champions. I put in 15 hours to a game called Chrono Trigger, and I’ve set up a Mario Kart tournament called the Tournament of Champions for tomorrow at noon. SCHWARTZ: I, too, am playing a tremendous amount of video games. I’m in Big Bear, it’s been snowing all week, and I’m playing a tremendous amount of video games. MIDDLEDITCH: Yes, Ben Schwartz, it’s me, Thomas Middleditch. SCHWARTZ: Thomas, how are you? This is Ben Schwartz. It only seemed right, then, to have Middleditch and Schwartz speak on the phone on an isolated Friday evening, to grill each other on their inventions, video games, and what Middleditch would ask his dog, Potter. When our daily lives call for an unprecedented level of improvisation, “Yes, and” has become universal truth. Though the duo couldn’t have planned for a global pandemic that would keep people in their homes, the timing was a sort of alchemy. While Netflix has become a mine for comedy specials, crowding feeds with countless hours of stand-up, Middleditch & Schwartz is the platform’s first improv show, bringing the thrill of live entertainment to an unmade bed near you. Per its title, the show is entirely based on the comedic fluency of its leading men: one, the guy who played Jean-Ralphio, Tom Haverford‘s cocky confidante on Parks and Recreation the other, the hoodie-clad wallflower who brought Pied Piper to Silicon Valley. Over the span of three specials, Middleditch and Schwartz cycle through a carousel of characters at a dizzying rate. In their new two-person improvisational Netflix special series, Middleditch & Schwartz, the comedy duo takes an existing situation (a wedding, a law school exam) and microwaves its kernels of absurdity into a surreal popcorn. If the cardinal rule of comedy is “Yes, and,” Thomas Middleditch and Ben Schwartz give the enthusiastic head nod of a teacher’s pet and toss the dice across the floor.
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